Can I even call them babies anymore? {12 months}

Seriously!? Can I even call these two babies anymore? (of course I can! They will always be my babies!) I think they are technically TODDLERS. Oh, that's a scary word. They have been toddling around my house for the last month, and now that they are 1, I guess it's official. It makes my heart ache just a little! I know I say this every month, but WHERE DID MY BABIES GO!!!???!!!

I feel like these two have changed so much in the last month. They went from crawling like maniacs and loving walking with anyone's help - but only with anyone's help (Lyla used to REFUSE to walk unless she could hold onto both of your hands) - to almost running! When they first started walking, (Alya was first) they would just wander from one room to the next. They didn't really play with toys much, they just walked from room to room, just because they could, I guess. They don't ever crawl anymore. But watching them walk around is the cutest thing in the whole world. Next to watching them "running" - or should I say walking really fast while they are squealing and being chased by me. Those are the best times. They have the best belly laughs. And just imagine, one baby belly laugh is adorable, but two of them!? It's amazing! I am seriously the luckiest mama!

I love watching them with each other. Sometimes they play really cute together, other times they don't play well together at all. But they do love to watch each other - which usually leads to them playing together. Even when they don't seem to really want to play together, they tend to prefer to be in the same room as one another. Which I think is so funny! And they almost always prefer to be in the same room as me. It's even hard to get them to stay in the same room as Matthew so that I can go cook dinner, or use the bathroom! Haha!
When we put the girls to bed, they each always get a kiss (or three) from Mom and Dad, but lately we have been letting them give each other kisses before bed, and they love it! They give each other wet, open mouth kisses while giggling the whole time! SO CUTE!!!

They have started to rely on a story before naptime/bedtime. They even have a couple of favorites. Their absolute favorite for a while was "Little Blue Truck." I could tell Lyla to go get "Blue" and she would find it across the room, buried under a pile of other books, and bring it to me to read it to her. She loves to point to the frog and the cow, and sometimes the piggy. And they love to be bounced when Blue goes "bump, bump, bump." They also really like "I Love You Through and Through" which is a really cute story about how we love our kids when they are happy, sad, silly, mad, etc. and how we love their hair, eyes, fingers, toes, ears, nose, etc. One of the pictures in the book is a close up of the little boys nose and eyes. Lyla (and now Alya) will touch the little boys' nose, and then touch her own nose. While we are reading the story we can ask where their noses are, and they almost always touch their nose (or their lips or cheeks, but we know they are aiming for their nose!). But they won't do it unless they are reading their book.
They do know where their belly buttons are. Alya usually ends up touching the VERY top of her little round tummy - which is no where near her belly button. But in her defense, it's hard for her to look down and see anything but the top of her belly. And it's really hard to see her belly button! Lyla usually reaches too far for her belly button and touches closer to her hips - probably for the same reason. It's hard to see over that round belly, so it's kind of a guessing game! :) They think it's really funny to find my belly button, and it's especially fun to play with my saggy, iwasoncepregnantwithtwins tummy.

They have always been fairly easy to lay down for naps and bedtime - most of the time. But lately, it has been SO easy! And I really hope I don't regret bragging about this! I do think they might start transitioning to one nap a day - which I am kind of dreading. It just seems every now and then, they don't get tired for their morning nap for an hour past their normal nap time. My biggest complaint about nap time is that they do best when they each have two binkies. They like to have one in their mouth, and one in their hands. It's so weird, but I guess if it helps them sleep, I'll let them have that one!
They also usually wake up so cute! If they wake up at the same time, they usually just sit in their cribs and talk to each other, and every now and then I hear them chuckling together until I go in and get them. I absolutely love it! That's how most mornings are anymore!

Their tiny bottom teeth are not so tiny anymore. Having these teeth come in has been so hard on them! They chew on everything, but they don't like to chew on the things that should help them - like cold teethers. They would rather chew on things like the lid to my vitamin bottle, or our broken railing, or even our window sill. They have taken chunks of paint and plaster off it. It's at the perfect height for their little mouths. Plus they like to look outside, so there is a little added appeal to gnawing on the window sill. And thank goodness I am almost done nursing because Lyla has started to chew on me every now and then!

Lyla got her second tooth this month. It came through on August 23.

She waves hello and goodbye, but it's usually when the person that she is waving to is no longer looking at her.

She got new shoes this month and did really good the first time we put her in them. She LOVES her new shoes, and when I ask her to bring them to me, she almost always knows where they are, (even though they are rarely put in the same spot twice) and will bring them to me, even if she was happily playing with something else when I asked her to go get them.

She loves to throw her Spiderman ball that Daxton gave her. When it bounces in the right spot, it lights up with blue and red lights, so she will walk around the house, throwing the ball and trying to get it to light up.

She can tell you what a puppy says, and always does a little bounce when she "barks." I guess it's more like a really airy "woof." She loves puppies. She will find them in people's yards, or walking past our house, or in books, and laugh and "woof" and it's so cute!
She also likes to practice her elk call. Matthew was watching a video one night to try to learn how to use an elk call, and Lyla kept copying the noise that Matthew and the video were making. I did record it, but for some reason I am unable to upload the video. If you want to see it, I can show you! :) It was really funny!

At the girls' one year check up today, Lyla weighed 20.14 lbs. and was 28 inches long. That puts her in the 33% for weight and the 16% for height. She is definitely my runt! But she is doing great!

Alya likes to shake her head no (although Lyla LOVES to tell me no) and she will nod her head yes. Usually when the girls are eating, they end up throwing a lot of food on the floor. So I tell them "no, no" and Alya almost always shakes her head no. Then it becomes a game of us going back and forth shaking and nodding our heads when I say "no" or "yes." And she thinks she is so funny!

She says "uh oh!" pretty much anytime she drops something. If she drops her water from her high chair, "uh oh!" If she drops a toy she is holding, "uh oh!" and my favorite is when she wakes up from a nap and drops her binky out of her crib, I can hear through the monitor saying "uh oh" multiple times.

She waves hello and goodbye, but it's always with a bent wrist. Like she's too lazy to raise her fingers! It's pretty funny!

I have been letting the girls pick out their clothes lately. I just take them to their closet and dress them in whatever they grabbed. One day, I put Alya in the dress she picked out and she immediately stood up, put her hands on her tummy and looked down at the dress, and then started to twist at the hips. It was so cute!! She must have just felt like the prettiest little girl on the face of the earth. And especially in that moment, she was!

She also loves her new shoes. Sometimes when she wakes up while Matthew is getting ready for work, he will put one of her shoes in bed with her and I will find her playing with it when she wakes up two hours later. The first time I put her in them, she just stood in one spot, looking at them. She did NOT know what to do with these foreign things on her feet. Her first few steps in shoes were VERY unsure. But now she is pro! She loves putting her shoes on because it means that we get to go outide!

She is very quick to give hugs and kisses when it's her idea. My favorite thing is when we are playing, she almost runs up to me with her arms outstretched, and wraps them around my neck. She cuddles with me for a minute and then usually gives me a quick kiss before she continues playing. It's another one of the "it's the best/I am the luckiest mama" moments.

Today Alya weighed in at 22.10 lbs. and she was 29 inches long. That puts her in the 66% for weight and the 45% for height.

They are very helpful when we are getting dressed now-a-days. They always lift up one leg at a time so I can slip their pants off, and they will sit very patiently in my lap, and offer me their feet so I can slip pants, and socks and shoes on for them. They do especially well when we are putting shoes and socks on, because it means they get to leave the house! :)

We have had the opportunity to take a lot of drives into the mountains as a family the last little while. The girls and I have loved it! We usually drive for a while and look for animals and see if we can see some fall colors. Then we stop and either just play for a little while, or have dinner and do our bedtime routine and then come home. It has been so much fun! It's fun to get out and let the girls wander around and play in the mountains!

I can't believe it's been a year. Everyone always says they don't remember what life was like without their kids, and I'm not going to lie. I DO remember what life was like before we had kids, and while I can pretty honestly say it was a lot easier, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Now that I know what life as a mom is, I couldn't imagine wanting to go back to how it was before. I love my husband and I love my girls. I love them with all of my heart! I truly feel so blessed to have them in my life. What a wonderful responsibility it is to be a wife, and especially to be a mom.

11 months

This month has been full of new things for these little girls. It has been pretty fun to watch them make the transitions from baby to toddler. I am positive they will officially be walking before their first birthday. Won't it be funny when they prove me wrong!? I can see them doing that just to spite me. They are definitely stubborn! They must have got that from their dad. HAHAHA!
It's funny to watch them and see how similar they are, and how different they are at the same time. Lyla is such a social butterfly. She is so happy to be around people and I kind of think she likes to be the center of attention a lot of the time. Alya is definitely a people watcher. She's very content to watch the things and people around her. But they almost get mad the same. They yell at each other!! and even sometimes hit each other, or grab their sister's shirt and yank her down to the floor!! Usually it's when one sister has a toy or a binky or a cup that the other sister wants; or if they get in each other's way. They both yell at me a lot too. And it's not a crying yell - they are really mad at me, so they will just yell at the top of the their lungs. Alya does it more than Lyla. I think Lyla might be a little more emotional, because usually there are tears involved when Lyla is mad.

They have not liked being spoon fed. They are getting way too independent for my liking! I rarely give them purees any more. They like pepperoni, and pretty much all things meat. They like cheese and they love clementines! Pretty much, as long as they get to feed it to themselves they will eat anything! Even when they don't like it! I gave them green beans one day and every time they brought it to their lips they would spit and make faces, but they just kept eating it - or at least tearing off bites and spitting them out. It was pretty funny!

They have been a little more ticklish this month. Their favorite is when they are sitting in their high chairs and I reach under their tray and tickle their bellies.
They have also been playing SO cute together lately! They may fight a lot, but they definitely play together a lot too! They love to play on Mo's big pillow in the corner of my bedroom. (Don't ask me why!) Our drapes hang next to the pillow so they will often times play peek-a-boo in the drapes with each other. They also like to give each other kisses. They kiss and laugh and kiss and laugh and kiss and laugh until one of them gets distracted with something else! It is seriously THE cutest thing I've ever seen. They have been laughing a lot together as well. When we go shopping the girls sit in the top part of the cart facing each other. One night we went to the store as a family (so Matthew got to witness the overload of cuteness). The girls were sitting in their cart watching each other. Lyla would shake her head and Alya would laugh! Alya would shake her head and Lyla would laugh! And when I say laugh, I mean laugh!!! They weren't just chuckling - they were like full on belly laughing! I'm sure the whole store heard them! And it lasted for about 10 minutes, give or take! :) It was SO funny! Needless to say, we were all laughing before they were done playing. Even people walking past us in the store couldn't help but laugh. It was awesome.

Another funny day...when the girls get fussy they crawl over to me and climb as far up my leg as they can. They will cling onto my pant leg (and sometimes my skin) until I pick them up. One day they were both really fussy and clinging to my leg - Lyla in front of my and Alya to the side of me. Alya ended up working her way behind me, whining the whole way. Once she got behind me I was able to step to the side. (I think I was making dinner or something like that, trying to maneuver around the kitchen with two babies clinging to my legs) Once I stepped to the side they saw each other through my legs and instantly went from fussing to laughing and trying to give each other kisses! They sure know how to cheer each other up, and how to get under each others skin!

Lyla is pretty passionate! When she's mad, she's MAD! When she wants something, so does everything she can think of to get it. She is impatient and bossy, and creative and funny. She can be super cuddly when she wants to be and so loving!

My mom and nephew bought the girls a couple of stuffed animals that Daxton picked out for them. The girls got them on Friday, and I'm a little sad he wasn't able to see their reactions to their new stuffed animals. Lyla was instantly attracted to the kitty and it has pretty much not been out of her sight since then. Last night we were getting ready for bed in their bedroom and her kitty was down the hall. When she was all ready for bed I asked her where her "kitty kitty" was. She stopped what she was doing and looked around and started crawling out the door and down the hall. Once she finds it she sits with a big ol' grin on her face! It's so stinkin' cute! :)

She loves to play in her pool! If I put her just in the grass next to her pool, it's not long before she crawls into the pool herself. She crawls circles through the water and crawls in and out of the pool.

She has one tooth so far. It's the one on the bottom right. I think she might be working on the second tooth as we speak, but for now, she just has one. It came in on July 26. She was eating food and she kept pointing at me, so I eventually pointed at her and she grabbed my finger and stuck it in her mouth and bit. I felt so proud - which might be a little weird! Haha!

One night Matthew was laying on his back by the girls' high chairs and Lyla just climbed onto his belly. Then onto the kitchen chair, then onto her high chair and tried to climb onto the table. She is getting pretty brave! She loves to be standing. Every time we go on a walk, she will stand up in her stroller. Sometimes I buckle her in and when she realizes that she can't move I get in big trouble! :)

She is a funny, funny girl! She has been telling a lot of stories lately. She LOVES books! I try to read them a bedtime story and sometimes they get a story at nap time. She always helps me turn the pages - every page. Then when we are done reading, she goes back through the book turning one page at a time (literally - sometimes she gets more than one page and she can tell - so she will separate the pages until she has only one) over and over and over again! There have been a couple of times when she is off playing by herself I have caught her with a book in her hands turning pages and talking - or should I say reading?

I didn't actually weigh the girls this month...maybe I will try to get around to that, and then I can update these stats, but I did get a chance to kind of measure the girls. I just had them standing on the ground and held a tape measure up so I'm not sure it's real accurate, but it's gotta be close, right!? Well, Lyla has consistently been smaller than Alya in all aspects - other than the one month she was about 1/2 inch taller. Well, this month she has passed her sister up in height yet again. She measured 29 inches!

Alya is just so stinkin' cute! As you can see, she took a liking to the hedgehog that her cousin picked out for her! And same with Lyla, she has been attached to it! These little stuffed animals have gone everywhere with them. I have named him Sonic and she is learning that when I ask where Sonic is, I am talking about her hedgehog.

She thinks everything that Lyla does is funny! Usually when I hear a baby laughing, it's Alya laughing at something Lyla is doing and Lyla just loves to perform for her sister! I think sometimes she does things just because she is getting a reaction out of Alya.

For a while, Alya was very ticklish under her neck. If I would even act like I was going to touch her neck she would react to it. It was so funny! She hasn't been doing that as much lately, which is kind of sad, but I hope that maybe it will be a ticklish spot in the future!

Teething for Alya has been pretty rough. She has been fairly uncomfortable for the majority of this month. I feel kind of bad for her. I had no idea that they made teething tablets that you can feed your baby and they just numb their whole mouth. Well, when I found out about them, I went and got some. Alya hadn't napped well for the day and she was being really fussy at dinner one night, so I gave her some teething tablets, and the pain must have almost immediately subsided because she fell asleep at dinner. She slept in her chair like that for probably 10 minutes before I took her down to bed. Poor girl! She got her first tooth - the bottom left tooth - on July 30 and got her bottom right tooth August 12.

It has been really fun to watch her process learning to walk. Lyla has just gone for it - if I set Lyla down in front of me, she'll just start walking. She's taken about 6 steps, but they are pretty unsure steps and if we don't catch her she falls. Alya sits back and watches Lyla and you can just tell that she is picturing herself walking before she tries it. Last night, we were getting the girls ready for bed and Matthew set Alya down on her feet and held his hands out a couple of inches to get her to walk to his hands. She took a few steps and then just kept going. She walked right past his hands and started to turn in a circle. She had to have taken at least 10 steps, and then she just stopped and continued to stand there. She was SO sure of what she was doing! It was pretty awesome!

We measured Alya the same time we measured Lyla. It looks like she is around 28 1/2 inches!

I love these girls with all my heart! I love learning with them and helping them to learn. I love experiencing things when they get to experience them. It's so crazy how fast things change; 5 months ago they could barely sit up on their own, and before I know it they are going to be running around and not wanting me to help them do anything. They already don't want my help with a lot of things! They change much too quickly!

Oh, how I love them!

And, there you go! :)